Defining Ol' Lady

The first time I heard my husband call me his ol' lady I didn't like the sound of it.  I used to associate the term with being low class or white trash. One of the things I realize now is that if you try to classify people as high class, low class, white trash, etc., you're probably assuming something you don't really know and you're missing out on getting to know some really great people.

I read somewhere that the term "ol' lady" has been traced all the way back to 1599. It seems like that if it's been around that long people wouldn't still be asking exactly what does it mean. When I lived at home with my parents, some of my friends would call them ol' lady or ol' man. Not to their face of course, but when they said to me "your ol' man" I knew they were talking about my dad. Now that I'm married, if someone says "your ol' man" I know they're talking about my husband. I've heard grown men referring to their dad as their ol' man, but I can't recall ever hearing the same person refer to their mom as their ol' lady.

In the biker world, being called an ol' lady is a compliment. Some women like "property of" instead, but I prefer ol' lady.  I don't think "property of" would bother me if that was how my husband's club distinguished the difference between a girl that hung around from one that was taken. Basically, if your patch says ol' lady or  property of, then other bikers, regardless of whether they are in the club or not, know that you are off limits. If you're husband or boyfriend calls you their ol' lady, they are proud to be with you and you are considered their "significant other".

You know at some point in time there were a bunch of bikers sitting around having a meeting about what they were going to put on their ol' ladies back to say that they belonged to them. I figure "significant other" was probably just way too many letters to put on a patch.